One. Two. One - One horror can change everything.

Review

Film: One. Two. One

Director: Mania Akbari

Country: Iran

One. Two. One is told through a series of conversations and focuses on the aftermath of an acid attack on the central character Ava by her jealous cousin who had wanted to marry her but has become angry when he sees her with her boyfriend Mani. 

In some ways, the film almost seems uncinematic, being little more than a series of linked talking heads. Each scene focuses in close up on the faces of one or two people, the camera occasonally moving from side to side to scan from face to face but often static. However, although at first thought it almost seems it might be better suited to theatre, you wouldn't be able to get the same focus on the minute expressions on the faces in that medium.

For a film like this to work, it needs a high standard of acting. The central performance from Neda Amiri is incredible and brings Ava to life as a fully rounded character.  There is no wallowing in her fate, but there is a mixture of despair and sadness, as well as determination and humour, pessimisim and optimisim. There is also an incredible humanity to her performance which makes her seem both universal and deeply unique.

Although the central feeling is one of sadness and barely repressed anger, there is also humour on occasion, particularly as the world around the characters intrudes on them, often from off camera.

The film is an excellent character study, and a moving and interesting journey as Ava finds acceptance of what happened to her and a really interesting and successful look at the ongoing knock on effects of a single tragedy.

Unfair World - Is what you get in life ever what you deserve?

Review
Film: Unfair World
Director: Filippos Tsitos
Country: Greece

Unfair World tells the story of a policeman who has decided that the law is not necessarily fair and he might just make a few exceptions to settle the balance of fairness and unfairness in the world.  However, as the consequences of his actions unravel and his life becomes entwined with that of his office cleaner neighbour, things spiral out of control.

The film has really interesting things to say on the nature of fairness and how our perception of this affects the decisions we make and actions we take.  Do we justify the less moral things we do because we feel the world owes us? And what is fair anyway?  It looks at these ideas from many different angles and doesn't come up with any easy answers.  But it is an interesting filter through which to show characters' motivation and behaviour.

The central performances from Antonis Kafetzopoulos and Christos Stergioglou are excellent, and on the whole the characters don't act to stereotype or necessarily as you would expect.  

Unfair World moves at a gentle pace and allows each ongoing consequence to unfold slowly and intriguingly.  It is also an interesting sideways look at the effects of recent financial problems with all the injustice that has gone with it.  

Overall, this is a very interesting film and an intriguing drama.

Girimunho - Grandma knows best

Review

Film: Girimunho

Directors: Clarissa Campolina, Helvécio Marins Jr

Country: Brazil

Girimunho is a beautiful and gentle portrait of an old woman as she adapts to the loss of her husband.  It's shot documentary style with natural and mesmeric performances, especially from the central character played by Maria Sebastiana Martins Alvaro.  It is gorgeously shot, with the story feeling like it is climbing out of the stunning Brazilian scenery. The way it is filmed makes the characters and story feel really organically interwoven with the scenery, so that the scenery is almost a character itself and that the characters are part of their surround and gives a dreamlike sense of the Brazilian town in which it is set. There is also a wonderfully evocative sense of time passing but also perhaps a culture being lost.

The grandmother fills her world with narrative songs and words of wisdom  bringing a sense of how she embodies her town's soul and culture.  The soundtrack is incredible.  She cannot help but have an increasingly important influence on the choices of her grandchildren, pushing them onto their own paths.  

Even though her late husband does not really appear, the film also gives a real sense of a life long relationship that it is hard to let go of, and we see her gradually come to terms with her loss, with defiance and sadness.

This film's glacial place means it won't be for everyone, but I was completely engrossed and moved.

Isn't Anyone Alive? - The world is ending? Meh....

Review
Film: Isn't Anyone Alive?
Director: Gakuryu Ishii
Country: Japan

I'm concerned I may be about to be overly critical about Isn't Anyone Alive? Not because it was a terrible film (I enjoyed quite a lot of it) but if feels liked a really wasted opportunity.

So I will start with the positive aspects.  The central idea is an interesting and original one.  One day, people start dying, not through any plague of zombies, alien invasion or rampaging serial killer, they just start to fit, choke and die.  And the apathetic students that the film focuses on haven't got the energy to react, the empathy to respond emotionally or the wherewithal to respond in any kind of usefully practical way.  This does lead to a lot of very humorous moments - and it is genuinely funny at times, particularly the character of Dr. Fish.

I'm not sure if I can quite put my finger on as to why it doesn't fully work.  There is something about the tone of the film that feels uneven and like the director either didn't have the courage of his convictions or just didn't quite get it right.  Like I mentioned, the film has the ability to be very funny.  But sometimes either the humour falls flat, or the film is perhaps trying to be more dramatic and emotionally real but this comes out of nowhere and doesn't mesh together properly.  The film is almost too cool and cold, when it needs to be more savagely, angrily funny. It is clearly trying to make a point about the almost sociopathic apathy and detachment of a generation living lives filtered by the media and not in the real world.

Possibly one of the problems is the lack of character development, or character realisation.  The characters are all incompetent at dealing with life and the events around them, and there isn't sufficient variety between them, nor anything at all that makes you really care one way or the other what happens.  I suppose this could be deliberate, given that this lack of interest is replicating much of how the characters react to the events around them, but it just leaves the viewer disengaged.  It is also an idea which is stretched out without much new being added as it goes on, so it becomes less interesting as the film progresses, and the only thing that keeps the viewer from giving up are the ongoing bizarre and surreal interactions of the soon to be dead.  Perhaps the abandoning of all the normal clichés and plot drivers of films dealing with this kind of subject matter is just too disorientating.

It is a slightly messy and flat realisation of what could have been a truly original film, but it is redeemed by being just humorous enough, just often enough.  There probably are people out there for whom this film will work, but I wasn't one of them.

Exit Elena - Welcome to the Family

Review

Film: Exit Elena

Director: Nathan Silver

Country: USA

Nathan Silver's Exit Elena is an almost uncomfortably intimate portrait of family life. It was a surprise to find out afterwards that it is a semi-autobiographical piece as the characterisation is raw and honest.  Also a surprise was that only one of the cast was a 'professional' actor as all the performances are utterly believable.

He cleverly places us in a social grey area - Elena, played by Kia Davis, takes up residence in the family home as the carer for Florence, the elderly mother/ mother-in-law of the house's owners.  She's an employee, and sees herself as such, but as a resident should she be treated as family member and friend, with all the lack of privacy and autonomy that entails, or labelled employee and possibly not be made to feel at home?

Silver deliberately chose a camera format that gives the look of a home movie and uses documentary style techniques.  This is what leads to the viewer discomfort (in an effective rather than alienating way) as we are made to feel like we are intruding on the private.  This is not to say that what we are watching is particularly horrific or grotesque.  But we are watching people who's need to be needed causes them to go beyond the usual social boundaries.  

Silver must have an excellent relationship with his mother, as she plays an exaggerated version of herself.  It is a vanity free performance, the created character's desire to include Elena in the family leading to discomfort both on Elena and the viewer's part from the intrusive enthusiasm and manipulation with which she is welcomed. She is trying to be a surrogate mother figure where that role is not desired and is incredibly emotionally manipulative with Elena and her own family and can't read the signals that ask her to back off. And there is little more socially uncomfortable that watching continuous arguing and bickering between a couple that you don't know but are forced to spend time with and Elena is subjected to this again and again.

Elena herself, although the focus of the film, is an altogether more ambiguous character, forced to be evasive in the face of stifling attention. She clearly wants to feel included in something, some kind of family structure, but on her own terms and at her own pace. She doesn't have a map to navigate the situation she finds herself in and seems to find herself more and more lost and making the kinds of choices she probably never would have planned on doing.  It is never explained but there is definitely a sense that she is trying to replace some kind of emptiness in her life.  The ambiguity with which the character is played allows us to project our own unease onto her and also to project how we would react and feel in such a situation.

In many ways, Exit Elena is not much more than a carefully staged home movie but for me it was an interesting look at social boundaries and human emotional needs that was worthwhile viewing.

Young Dudes - Facing the apocalypse, Taiwanese slacker style.

Review

Film: Young Dudes

Director: Chen Yin-jung

Country: Taiwan

I'm still not 100% sure I know what happened in the second half of Young Dudes, but DJ Chen has undoubtedly brought one of the most individual directorial voices I have had the privelege to come across in my few years going to the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

It's very much a film of two halves, and although the jump is sudden and almost confusing, it all comes together at the end in a really satisfying way (and as a complete aside the final scenes make me want to start a candle and lantern lit musical festival somewhere far away and remote in the Highlands).

It starts off in a lovely, 2 guys and a girl, new-wavey type story. Adam (Edison Wang Po-chieh) wanders about drunk or stoned, carrying his guitar, with no apparent gainful employment apart from staging random protests dressed as Michael Jackson and bugging his best friend Guy (Tsuyoshi Abe), a woodwork teacher.  They meet Adele (Larisa Bakurova) randomly one night in a club, and from their the three of them go off on an endearing journey through their imagination.  With no real problems to deal with, they come up with a solution for the world to survive the apocalypse they are convinced is coming.  And it goes viral.  

Just when you start to think that this will continue along as a sweet film about two friends trying to each win over the mysterious girl of their dreams, Adam gets lost.  Without giving too much away, we are carried into very strange, dream like and philosophical territory.  It's certainly not a way I have ever seen the idea of the apocalypse approached before on film and it is an intriguing journey.  The film in some ways resembles a fairy tale - the hero taken from his idyllic life and then finding himself on a quest to return home - albeit a cyber age, slacker, stoner fairy tale.  

The film is beautifully shot, and really evocative of both youth and lost youth, dreams and idealism.  It is completely infused with imagination and a singular vision of the world.

The performances are wonderful, both humourous and full of personality.

It's a film I would love to see again as I think it is the type of film that you would get something new from repeat viewings.  If you want to jump into a film about the power of friendship, optimism and imagination, then I highly recommend this.

Jackpot - Be careful what you wish for

Review
Film: Jackpot
Director: Magnus Martens
Country: Norway

Jackpot is not the place to go for a cerebral or artistically groundbreaking film about criminality.  But it is bloody (very bloody) good fun.

With its twisted plot and black humour, it has plenty of antecedents and is probably not trying to be too original or mouldbreaking. However, the wonderfully over the top plot is great fun and will just have your jaw drop before you burst out giggling. And it is certainly very different to the grittier brand of Nordic noir that I have been enjoying on my telly recently. The outrageously funny detective is most definitely not Sarah Lund.

By having the plot shaped around one of the participant's interview with a detective, the film is, either deliberately or not, going to get compared to The Usual Suspects.  It doesn't stand up to that comparison, as it is not nearly as cleverly or tautly scripted.

Henrik Mestad is the stand out performance as the detective - comic timing and dry sarcasm doesn't always come through when you're reading the subtitles (and beating the spoken dialogue to the punchline) but he really delivers on it.  Kyrre Hellum is also really effective as one of the most put upon inadvertent criminals you will come accross.

In the end Jackpot is wrapped up in a pacy, absurd, caper with the blackest wit and all done in the best worst possible taste.  If comedy crime dramas are your thing, and the bloodier the action and the more immoral characters the better a film is to you, you'll love it.

Life Without Principle - Tales from the financial crash

Review
Film: Life Without Principle
Director: Johnnie To
Country: Hong Kong

Life Without Principle is a very watchable look at the world economic crash through a group of different lives in Hong Kong, though not one so impactful that it will stay in the memory for long.

The best story line revolves around Panther (Lau Ching Wan), an endearingly enthuiastic, semi-competent, gang member.  It's a really good fun performance, and it brings welcome lightness and comedy to the film. It is Panther's comedy-thriller storyline that provides the engine to the film, and could probably have worked as a more developed single story film in itself. It's not that the other characters' lives aren't interesting stories, but they slow the film's momentum.

Also central is bank worker Teresa (Denise Ho), who is caught in a series of moral dilemnas, first under pressure to sell a risky new investment proposition, then caught with an unexpected opportunity.

Weaving in and out of this is a police inspector, just trying to get through the days, but getting caught up with the consequences of boom and bust. 

A comment is made by a character about how so many people invest or gamble to get something for nothing and in contrast a desperate character later on describes how he has worked all his life only to lose everything, and the message is clear - that morally there was criminal behaviour in legitimate financial organisations that was not much of a step from that in the gang that Panther belongs too and it is the ordinary person that suffers.  It's not a groundbreaking point of view, but what the movie does well is that it isn't the main focus of the film, nor is it being hammered home too heavily, it is just gently seeps through the different stories.

Not a film that will change your life, but an interesting reflection on one of the main issues of the day.

Dragon / Wu Xia - You can't always escape your past.

Review
Film: Dragon/Wu Xia

Director: Peter Chan

Country: China

A bit of context first, I have seen very few martial arts films, so I can't really judge Dragon on that basis, but I found it an entertaining film.

What I can say is that the martial arts were highly spectacular and the film gave room for some excellent performances, especially from Wei Tang as Ayu.  The character development was really interesting and it was never black and white who was hero or villain (except nearer the end) or who was right or wrong.  There was also a compelling sense of foreboding throughout.

The film dealt with some interesting concepts around redemption, the ability to escape from your past catching up with you and the nature of the law, but it didn't have the space to deal with them in a deep enough way to make them truly engaging. This isn't a major criticism, as there was an obvious constraint in keeping the plot and the action rolling, but it did mean the film wasn't as fulfilling as it could have been.  I have to say I was not hugely keen on the score as I found it a bit over the top, but this wouldn't have been the first time this has annoyed me more than most people!

The use of slow-mo generally worked (I'm not always the biggest fan) and I did enjoy the retelling of the opening fight as the detective worked out his own interpretation.  Some of that, along with the approach of the detective, did make me remember the two recent Sherlock Holmes adaptations (both BBC and Guy Ritchie). I'm not making this comparison in either a negative or positive way, just putting it out there!

Overall, Dragon/Wu Xia is definitely an entertaining watch, but it perhaps missed an opportunity to be an even more interesting film.

Sun Don't Shine - A heightened and intense portrayal of love and consequences.

Review
Film: Sun Don't Shine
Director: Amy Seimetz
Country: USA

From the introduction we were given, director Amy Seimetz seems keen that the audience doesn't know too much about the plot before viewing the movie, so I am going to keep to that but hopefully still give a sense of what was a truly involving film.  It was great to have a fascinating Q&A with the director afterwards, to hear what Seimitz was trying to achieve and her thinking behind her choices.

The movie starts in the middle of an argument, and from that point on we are shown a complicated relationship that is portrayed in vivid and believable detail but always ambiguous and left to be interpreted to the viewer's perspective and prejudices. Seimetz is playing with our notions of victimhood, loyalty, manipulation and passion as the relationship is put under a huge strain.  It is fascinating.  It really stays with you as you process it emotionally afterwards.

She explores this by crafting a melodrama and thriller, albeit one at a somewhat different pace and with a hell of a lot more naturalism and character focus to your average Hollywood one.  However, this makes us more involved in the characters (even if we aren't wholly sympathetic to them) making the tension all the greater.  The film does focus a great deal on the intimate conversations and interaction of the central two characters, but it is strange to hear that the film has been given the 'mumblecore' tag, when the subject matter and drama to the film sets it far away from films that are more set in the quieter details of life!

The use of melodrama is particularly effective as it forces the two leads into emotionally heightened performances. Both Kate Lyn Sheil and Kentucker Audley are excellent and totally convincing. Sheil's performance in particular is so nuanced yet runs the full range of emotions and is utterly gripping.  What this means is that although the characters are apparently in their twenties or older, they have a sort of teenage emotional intensity and irrationality that really works for the film.  The creation of the characters recognises that real characters are messy and confused and unpredictable, rather than a collection of stereotypes or archetypes.  Seimetz said in her Q&A that she really wanted to create a true and interesting female character in Crystal, not just a strong heroine or someone fitting expected female tropes.  She and Sheil certainly succeeded with that.  Crystal is not necessarily likeable but she feels like a real person and provides an incredible core to the film.

By mixing the thriller genre with her instinctive, personal and character driven style, Seimetz is giving us a really fresh perspective on a narrative theme that has been done in many films.  She has focussed on the part that often only detains the plot for a few minutes but in reality could be all consuming.  The emotional car crash, let alone the practicalities, of dealing with unexpected and traumatic events is usually glossed over in thrillers or dealt with in more traditional drama formats.  It takes a lot of skill to mix the drama and thriller elements effectively, but I think it is pulled off particularly well.  Whereas there is often a set way for film characters to react to misfortune or tragedy, the real world brings a myriad of reactions, and these characters react unpredictably throughout, unpredictable even to themselves.  By using different techniques to tell the story, such as the recalled conversations over the scenes on the road, we can never quite settle and relax, adding to the feeling of tension and unease.

This is really confident and individual film making, articulated with a strong, and fascinating voice and I would highly recommend seeking it out if you can.

Grabbers - when aliens invade Craggy Island

Review
Film: Grabbers

Director: Jon Wright

Country: Ireland

Got to get the lazy cultural reference point out the way, but if you ever wished there had been an episode of Father Ted where they had to fight an alien invasion, then this fantastically fun movie will fill that requirement for you.  In fact it probably does for the Garda's alien fighting abilities what Father Ted did for the priesthood - okay, I'll stop it now.

The central conceit (which I'm not going to reveal here as I kind of wish I hadn't read about it in advance) is a brilliantly simple, and clever twist.  How the story plays out goes largely within what you'd expect from the genres the filmmakers are playing with, but the film is aware of this and having an enormous amount of fun with it.

The script is as funny as you can hope.  I'm presuming this film was made on a reasonably tight budget, but this doesn't matter as the film makers clearly understand it's not about throwing millions at the screen but about what you show and more importantly when you show it.  A well chosen movement of the camera or suspense timed to the mili-second can achieve as much a thrill factor as a CGI extravaganza (not to say that the CGI that is used isn't good, it's just to make the point about how well selected its use is).

I don't really have much negative to say about Grabbers.  It may not change the world of film making but I don't think that's a negative - the film knows what it wants to do and does it really well.  In fact it makes it look so simple, you wonder how many films get it so wrong.  It's got the potential to be either a cult favourite or have mass appeal (if that's not a total contradiction!) and I can really see it as one of those films that you find yourself asking everyone you know if they've seen and then shoving the DVD in their hands if they say no. 

One final thought, with first The Guard and now Grabbers, what exactly have the Garda done to Irish film makers to get these kind of on-screen representations?

Hospitalite - Sometimes house guests come with more than just baggage.

Review
Film: Hospitalite
Director: Koji Fukada
Country: Japan

One of the things that I found most interesting about Hospitalite is that although it is very bizarre at times, even farcical, it still felt like quite a naturalistic, neutral film, probably because the performances are kept nicely controlled.  This naturalism draws you in and engages you with the characters, meaning you are kept intrigued at the havoc brought on to their lives.

Unlike many films, I really could not tell where this was going, which definitely made it feel original. You never really know where you are, which leads to the slightly discomforting tone. In terms of films about people meddling in other people's lives, the only two I could think of were Amelie and Harry, He's Here to Help but it is more discomforting than the former, and less sinister than the latter, and stranger than both.  Sometimes it can be unsatisfying to leave a film not being entirely sure what on earth has just been going on - I still have no idea quite what happened, but not in a confusing way, probably just more in common with the central family who were almost certainly still reeling from what hit them.

The film is dryly amusing and a lot of fun,  a lot of that coming from the excellent comic pitch of the performances.  I'm not sure if it is supposed to be an allegory, but I was happy to take it at face value and can recommend it as a very entertaining, interesting and individual film.

Warning: Rent-A-Cat could turn you into a cat person.

Review
Film: Rent-A-Cat
Director: Naoko Ogigami
Country: Japan

This was a very funny and enjoyable film, although it had an underlying sadness, it's overall flavour was super sweet bubble gum.  It won't be for everyone, possibly even most people.  You can't be cynical, and it wears it's quirkiness on it's sleeve.  It delights in being completely over the top and some may find it cartoonish or annoying, but to me that added to the fun.  At the same time, it is a very sentimental film - again that will make it a bit of a marmite film, either heartwarming adorable or unbearably sickly and twee.

Another thing that some people might not be able to stomach is the exaggerated mannerisms of the main character, but again if you just went with it, I thought it was an effective and rewarding performance from Mikako Ichikawa.  It works well in the overall context of the film and complements the inner sadness of the character.

The film uses repetition for amusing effect, although by the end has maybe slightly overdone it.  Although using it as a plot device in a completely different way, from accidentally overhearing the conversation of the people next to me, I wasn't the only person who was reminded of Groundhog Day! 

If kooky and offbeat is your sort of thing, then the film is worth watching for some very funny moments - the sequence when Sayoko (Mikako Ichikawa) thinks she has come across a rival corporate Rent-A-Cat business is totally hilarious and  the reoccurrences of  bizarre, bitchy, gruff, transvestite neighbour had everyone around me (and me) chuckling and giggling.  And an absolutely brilliant use of comedy cats.

I went into the film definitely a dog person, but such is Sayoko's faith in the ability of cats to make life better, I may be a little bit of a cat person now.

A quick first post

I'm hurriedly writing this before I head off to my first film of the Festival.  Since my parents travelled a few hundred miles to see me for my birthday yesterday (so no film going!) and I have a birthday related trip to Berlin from next Thursday, this year's film festival going is squeezed into 6 days for me. With work, my birthday party with friends, and a 1st birthday party as well, all crammed in.  But there is still time for 13 films! Whether there is time for dinner each night, I haven't yet worked out.

It's going to be another round the world trip, with Asia figuring heavily, but Europe and the Americas in there too.  

This year was one of the hardest to narrow down, but I think that's the sign of a really fascinating programme, so I am all the more excited this year for the slate of films.  My process is to work out which features I can go to (one year I will make some time, and spare money to go see some of the shorts) - this year it was 72. Read the programme and give it an initial rating out of 5 (virtually everything gets a 3 or 4, it's not the best process to be honest!) and then do some research onto all those with a score of 4 or more.  That got me down to around 30.  Some might be World Premieres so it comes down to gut instinct or seeing if the director has done anything interesting before.  But for the remainder, one of the most useful things is festival blogs.  Even a snippet can sell you the film - or put you off.  But whichever, it is really helpful and might give me the courage to really take a risk with my £9.  

Blogs helped get me down from 30 to about 20 and then the constraints of time (oh to be in 2 or 3 places at once) got me down to 13.  So just in case any of the films I'm going to see make it to other festivals before they are released, and I can help someone else discover a hidden gem of a film that they can't find much else about, I thought I'd share my thoughts here.

And even if no one else finds it helpful, at least it might save my friends from having to listen to me rambling on about how much I enjoyed a film they will probably never see.